Her Laughter
by siriusly-random
Summary: He never thought he'd miss the sounds of his neighbour until he realized he never heard her laugh anymore. Nalu AU one-shot.
1. Her Laughter

"Ahhh Happy what am I going to do? I feel like I haven't slept in forever!" Natsu moaned as he sat on his couch, his blue cat purring on his lap. For the past few weeks there had been constant noise from the apartment next to his, whether it was obnoxious laughter, singing, or even (what he hoped) dancing. Needless to say, Natsu was not impressed. Not to say that he hadn't complained to his neighbour, a pretty blond girl who was pretty weird in his opinion. He complained every chance he got, and it would work for a few days where he'd have some peace and quiet, but then it would start up again.

Natsu sighed, rubbing his face with his hands. If he weren't such a good person, he would have gone to the landlord about the noise, but he refrained.  
It didn't have anything to do with the fact that Natsu may or may not like the blonde haired beauty named Lucy.

He just really missed sleep, and it was almost the time where whoever it was who came over would be there and they'd be having the time of their lives.  
But no one showed up tonight.

Natsu, at first, attributed it to the fact that she listened to his complaints and they were either being quieter, or she was going to whoever's house instead of them coming over.

Two weeks later however, and the apartment was still eerily quiet.

Natsu almost missed the noise.

* * *

He was going to go crazy, he decided.

Another week passed and still, there was just quiet. He was starting to get worried, he didn't see the blonde around the building much anymore either. He'd usually run into her in the elevator or even doing laundry, but lately those occurrences have been slim to none.

He was starting to miss the noise. Mostly because he could no longer hear her laughter, something he never got to experience in person since they haven't really had a long conversation.

But damn it, he had to do something, for both of their sakes.

So that's how he ended up outside her apartment door, debating whether or not he should actually knock. Because what was he going to say? "Hi, so I know we've never had a proper conversation before but I really miss your laughter because I could hear it in my apartment and no I'm not a creep I swear but what's wrong? Because something is obviously wrong." Yeah right, like he'd say that.

By this point his hair was a mess, having run his hands through it over a dozen times. He already got a few weird looks from his neighbours passing by, and he knew if he didn't do something soon someone was bound to do something, like call the landlord, or even the cops.

And Natsu didn't particularly feel like going to jail today.

So with that terrifying thought, he raised his fist and knocked on the door, shifting from one foot to another, desperately trying to think of what the hell he was going to say.

Maybe he really was a creep.

A few minutes passed and there was still no answer at the door, so he knocked again before he could lose the little amount of courage he gathered. He knew for a fact (he swore he was not a creep just observant) that she was home, her car was out in the lot and he hadn't see her go out of the building that day, having been roaming the halls and talking to his friends who also lived there.

So why wasn't she answering?

"Hey, Lucy?" he tried calling out, hoping she could hear him. "Uh, it's Natsu, your neighbour. I was just wondering if you were okay, you know, cause, uh, you seem pretty down lately?" his hands were starting to sweat, so he wiped them on his pants while he waiting for an answer that never came. He knocked again. "Lucy, I just wanna help. If you wanna talk or whatever, I'm just next door. Well, uh, that's it I guess? Okay, bye!"

He never ran away from something as quickly as he did just then in his whole life, and he probably never would again.

Which was too bad, because he missed the door to apartment 217 open just a creek, with a blonde haired girl behind the door with tears in her eyes.

* * *

Another week passed and Natsu still didn't hear anything from Lucy. He was 100% certain he fucked up and wanted to curl up into a ball and never leave his apartment again in order to save himself from utter embarrassment. But he needed food, and food was more important than his dignity.

With his keys in one hand and his jacket in the other, he stood in front of his door, preparing himself for what was waiting for him on the outside. He knew for a fact that the moment Gray saw him he wouldn't be able to live down what happened. He had texted him as much, anyway.

Putting his jacket on, he reached for the door knob and took a deep breath. "You got this Natsu. Gray is just a little ice princess who doesn't matter."

But before he could open the door, a quiet, almost inaudible knock sounded on his door.

"Huh?" Odd, he thought. Nobody ever came to his apartment, since they knew it was like a hurricane had hit it; even though he did clean up this past week in the hope that Lucy would come over.

Oh, Lucy!

But he highly doubted it. He had made a fool of himself, why would she only come over now?

In any case, he opened the door, and was pleasantly surprised when it _was_ Lucy who stood in front of his door, eyes downcast, holding one wrist in her other hand, a slight blush adorning her cheeks.

But it wasn't out of embarrassment.

She was crying.

He stood there in shock, barely even able to register what was going on before she launched herself onto him, her sobs becoming louder and more defined. Quickly backing up into his apartment, he kicked the door shut with his foot, wrapping his arms around the blonde. He guided them over to his couch, gently helping her down, his arms still encased around her. Not quite knowing what to say, because he was never very good with emotions (plus this was really quite random and he had no idea why she was crying), he just let her cry into his shirt.

"I'm sorry," she sniffled after a while, her sobs fading into silent tears. "I don't know why I came here."

He rubbed her arms, trying his best to make her feel better. "It's okay, I offered didn't I?" He felt her shake her head against his chest, her arms starting to loosen up around him.

Suddenly he felt something soft and furry wrap around his legs, and he suddenly remembered Happy. Hesitantly, Natsu unwrapped his arms from around Lucy and leaned down to pick up his little blue friend. "Hey buddy, this is Lucy, do you wanna say hi?" Happy meowed, and Natsu took that as a sign that he did indeed want to say hello. Lucy blinked at the cat, probably wondering why he was _blue_ of all colours, before leaning away from Natsu and holding out her arms.

"Hey there cutie," she cooed as he passed her his cat. Happy cuddle up right into her arms, closing his eyes and purring as she starting to stroke his fur. She looked up at Natsu, her face tear stained but still beautiful, in his opinion. "Why is his blue?"

Chuckling, Natsu reached over and scratched Happy behind his ears. "Not too sure really, I just found him like that. Probably has some dark scary backstory, but he's happy now and that's all that really matters right?"

"Yeah."

And for the first time in a long time, Natsu saw Lucy smile.

He only hoped that it wouldn't be long before he heard her laugh again.

* * *

 **A short one shot I wrote because I love these two dorks. I hope you guys enjoyed it**

 **~567random**


	2. His Smile

It had taken a while, but eventually Lucy had opened up to Natsu about everything that had happened in those few weeks. She had been in a long lasting relationship of 5 years with someone she thought was the love of her life, only to find out he had been cheating on her with some random girl he met at some bar.

So, doing the only thing that made sense to her at the time, Lucy hid out in her room, avoiding anyone and everyone, barely getting enough food, mostly eating take-out. But then a pink haired neighbour came to her door, asking what was wrong, and she started to get her shit back together and live her life again, slowly but surely.

And now here she was, stretched out on a black leather couch in her neighbour-now-boyfriends apartment watching a movie with her head in his lap while he fed her popcorn as she stroked Happy's fur, who was resting on her lap.

It was so cliche she wanted to vomit.

But at the same time she couldn't think of anything else she'd rather be doing.

Natsu started to cackle at some funny part of the movie, but if Lucy were being honest with herself she hadn't be watching a whole lot of the movie, instead she was watching him. Watching how his eyes would light up at something funny or dramatic, how he would frown at the idiotic parts or the more serious parts. But most of all she would watch his smile, and how every time he went to feed her popcorn he would smile softly down at her with adoration on his face and she wondered how he made her heart jump like that.

How did she get so lucky?

"Hey Natsu?" she reached up and placed a hand on his cheek, smiling at him softly.

"Yeah?" he placed a hand over hears, stroking it with his thumb.

"I love you."

His eyes went wide and his hand stopped in it movements. But then he just grinned, eyes lighting up in a way she hadn't seen yet.

"I love you too Luce."

* * *

"I mean it only makes sense, right?" Natsu asked, nervously looking at his girlfriend of one year. He had just asked her to move in with him, and needless to say he was terrified of her answer. After all, she could very well say no.

Lucy, on the other hand was surprised that he seemed so nervous. She thought it'd be obvious what her answer would be, she basically lived in his apartment already anyways, her's having too many bad memories. She maybe slept in her own bed once a week, and that was mainly to justify paying rent.

Laughing, Lucy wrapped her arms around him, giving him a quick peck on the lips. "Of course I will dummy."

He grinned, his nervousness fleeing him as he picked her up and spun her around. "Good, Happy would have been really sad if you said no."

"Of course he would've been."

* * *

This was it. The day they moved out of their apartment and into their very own house.

Lucy wondered where the time went.

It seemed like she only came crying to his door last week, upset about a bad break up with some guy who didn't even begin to compare to Natsu.

Still though, she'd miss their cosy little apartment. There were a lot of good memories-bad one's too, but that can hardly be avoided. But mostly it was six years of laughter and snarky remarks, of teaching Natsu to cook, of learning everything possible about each other, down to the last little detail. It was learning how to love again, and finding out how utterly happy you can actually be. All it took was someone offering a shoulder to cry on.

"Happy isn't going to be very happy," Natsu said with a slight smile on his face as they packed up the last of their things in their car.

"Happy will learn to live with it. He can always have play dates here with Charle or Wendy could even bring her over to our place." Wendy was Natsu's younger cousin who lived on the floor above them, and she had an adorable little white cat who they suspected Happy was in love with.

And by suspected, they meant blatantly obvious.

"Hear that little buddy?" he asked the aforementioned cat who was set up in a cat carrier in the back seat. "You can still see your ladylove whenever you want!" Lucy just rolled her eyes as he shut the door and she wobbled her way to the passenger side of the car.

Wobbled, because she was 7 months pregnant and couldn't see her feet very well.

Which was on of the main reasons they were moving into a house, they didn't want-or have the room- to raise their child in an apartment building. They wanted them to have a nice backyard where they could play, where they could have family barbecues and have big birthday parties.

They wanted to spoil them.

"Alright Luce," he grinned over at her as he got in the car. "Let's go start our newest adventure!"

She smiled back, falling just a little bit more in love with him in that moment. She wanted to treasure his smile forever.

* * *

"Mommy!" A blonde haired, green eyed little boy cried. "Lex pushed Nashi to the ground!" A little girl with pink hair stood next to the blonde haired child, holding his hand and crying, rubbing her eyes with her other hand.

"Oh my poor baby, are you okay?" Lucy cooed, kneeling down and bringing the little girl into her arms. After checking to make sure she didn't have any serious injuries, Lucy smiled softly at the boy. "I'm sure Lex didn't mean to hurt her. Did he apologize?"

The boy shuffled, not looking at his mother. "Luc?" she asked after he muttered something under his breath.

"Dunno. I hit him before he could say anything."

Lucy sighed, letting go of Nashi. "Luc, you know you shouldn't hit people, even if they hurt your little sister. I'm sure you didn't apologize to him, did you?" Luc shook his head. "Leah is probably telling Levy around the same thing you just told me, you know. Two wrongs don't make a right. I want you to go over there right now and say you're sorry, and then you'll come back and go to your room. I'll send your dad with you to make sure you apologize."

Luc nodded, going to wait by the door. Going off to search for Natsu, Lucy sighed for what felt like the tenth time. She loved and adored her children, and they really were great kids. But Luc and Lex always seemed to get into fights, and Lucy was willing to bet it was from their respective fathers influence. After all, Natsu and Gajeel were known to constantly fight, though they tried to tone it down in front of the kids.

"Hey Natsu," she greeted with a smile, Nashi beside her holding her hand no longer crying. Natsu had been taking a nap on the couch in their living room, but was woken up by Luc's loud entrance.

"Hey Luce," he looked down at Nashi, coming over and picking her up. "Hey kiddo!" he lifted her up into the air, spinning around. "Was that meanie picking on you again?" setting her down, he knelt in front of her, watching as she nodded. "Do you want daddy to go beat up his daddy for payback?"

"Natsu! Honestly, this is why Luc fights Lex all the time." Hands on her hips, Lucy glared at her husband.

"Aw Luce, you know I was kidding! So does Nashi, right kiddo?" Nashi nodded, always taking her fathers side. Lucy didn't think it was very fair, but then again Luc seemed to agree with her more often.

It must have something to do with the hair.

She smiled at her thought process. They really had made two beautiful children.

* * *

Lucy felt tears well up in her eyes as she looked at her baby girl, no longer a baby but a beautiful bride.

"Oh mum, please don't cry! If you start crying so will Levy and Gajeel will activate his sixth sense and come barging in." Nashi pleaded with her mum, shaking her shoulders. Lucy was willing to bet that the real reason she didn't want her to cry was because _she_ would start crying too.

"Okay, okay I'll try. I can't believe you're getting married! Oh, Levy, where did the time go?"

"Lu-chan, I was thinking the same thing. Oh, I always knew Lex had a crush on you! He's so much like his father, acting all tough and mean to the girl he likes. I'm so happy for you two Nashi, you know you're like a second daughter to me." Levy gushed from her seat on the couch in the dressing room.

Leah, who was sitting beside her mother giggled. "Well, I for one think this wedding is way overdue. You've obviously been in love with each other for years. I'm happy for you, sis."

And at that, Nashi burst into tears.

* * *

Their wedding was a beautiful one, and Lucy cried her eyes out for most of it. Natsu had been on the verge of tears himself, but kept it together for his wife's sake. Luc was too busy comforting his own girlfriend who was bawling, a blue haired girl named Wynter who was also Nashi's best friend.

"We did good, didn't we Natsu?" Lucy asked as she watched her children dance out on the dance floor. She looked over at Natsu to see him smile softly as he looked out at them.

"Yeah. Yeah we did."

And Lucy was so indubitably glad that she met the man standing before her, because his smile washed away any pain she ever felt.

And she loved that more than anything.

* * *

*cries because I actually loved writing this*

I hope you guys enjoyed this! I thought a nice fluffy part 2 was needed for this!

~567random


End file.
